


Glittering Mica

by SequinSmile



Series: Glittering Mica [1]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Angst, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Feels, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, I Made Myself Cry, Light Angst, Post-Canon, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-19 01:34:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29499636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SequinSmile/pseuds/SequinSmile
Summary: How an unexpected phone call changes everything for Emily and Aaron.Set post Season 15. Post-Canon.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Emily Prentiss
Series: Glittering Mica [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2215641
Comments: 55
Kudos: 95





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello,
> 
> Well, look at me writing something that doesn't completely ignore canon. 
> 
> This idea would NOT leave me alone, so I wrote it down and it just kept going. This will be a two parter, and hopefully part two will up by the weekend. 
> 
> I will also be updating "Whatever Tomorrow Brings" this week too. 
> 
> Enjoy! x

It starts with a phone call. It’s just a few months after Garcia left the team, and so much has changed but so much has stayed the same. Her relationship with Andrew came to a quiet end, no hard feelings on either side. Their time together something both of them would treasure. When her phone rings on a random Thursday afternoon and the number displayed is an unknown one she doesn’t think anything of it when she answers. 

“Prentiss.”

“Emily.” His voice comes through the phone, the first time she’s heard from him in years, and her heart feels like it skips a beat. 

“Hotch?” 

“Hi. How are you?” 

His question seems so ridiculous, so futile after so long that it makes her laugh. “What kind of question is that?” 

He is silent on the other end, “Sorry, maybe this was a mistake.” 

“No.” Her voice is quick, firm. Imploring him to not hang ip. “Are you ok?” Emily is worried about what must have happened to get him to call. “Is Jack ok?”

“We’re fine, Emily. We’re back in DC.” 

“Oh.” Whatever she had expected him to say it wasn’t that. “Why?” 

“What kind of question is that?” Aaron repeats her earlier words with mirth in his tone, and she relaxes a little. “I was wondering if you wanted to grab a coffee or something? We could catch up.”

“There’s a hell of a lot to catch up on, Hotch. It’s been years.” She knows she sounds angry, and she is. Part of her understood why he had stayed away after Mr Scratch had been killed, she got the need to be away from the place where everything had gone wrong. She had done the same with London, but at least she had stayed in touch. 

“Please, just one coffee. I’ll buy.” 

She blows out a breath and closes her eyes to centre herself. “Ok fine, but make it a glass of wine. Or several.” 

Aaron lets out a small laugh over the phone and she imagines what his smile would look like. “Deal. Tomorrow night?”

“Yeah. Tomorrow night.”  
____________________________

When they do meet up its so awkward at first it reminds her of how it felt when she first joined the team. They don’t know how to be around each other at first and it hurts Emily more than she expected. At one point, a long time ago now, she had always assumed they could be something and she wonders if she imagined it. 

They land on a safe subject - Jack. The 15, almost 16, year old is clearly the light of Aaron’s life and the look on his face when he talks about him warms her heart. 

“He’s the reason I decided it was time to come back.” Aaron explains as he takes a swig of his beer. “I wanted him to be around family again and not just me.” 

“Can I see a photo of him?” She bites her lip as she asks, unsure if it is a stupid question or not. He answers by pulling his phone out and showing her his lockscreen. It’s a picture of him and Jack, the young man almost as tall as his father now, at a football game together. “He’s grown so much.”

“Yeah, every time I think he’s done growing he shoots up again. At this rate he’ll be taller than me.”

Their conversation flows easier after that, and they promise to do it again soon. Emily wonders if he means it at first but wakes up the next morning to a text from him and she suddenly felt like everything was about to change. 

At first their get togethers are in public places, neutral territory where neither one of them has the upper hand. They take it in turn paying for the drinks, until one day it becomes dinner and Aaron insists he pays.

It’s only when she closes her apartment door behind her that night she wonders if it was a date.  
____________________________

By the time they start alternating weekly dinners at their homes, when she’s not away on a case, she still hasn’t asked him what they are to each other. It’s only been 3 months since he called her out of the blue and she’s already too used to having him back in her life. She doesn’t want to ruin it by asking a question that could scare him off. 

Emily decides if this is what she can have from him, weekly dinners and his friendship, then she would be happy with it. She was fairly sure she loved him, she definitely loved his son, and when she sits having dinner with them one Friday evening she thinks that could be enough. 

Jack is regaling her with some high school drama with his girlfriend, and she laughs at Aaron’s reactions to his son apparently being stuck in some sort of love triangle. “You should stop before you give your dad a heart attack, Jack.” She laughs into her glass of wine. 

Jack looks to his dad and rolls his eyes before turning back to Emily, “I think he forgets that not everyone marries their high school sweetheart.” 

Emily laughs again, “Still we should go easy on him.”

“I’m not sure I like the two of you ganging up on me.” Aaron says, although the tone of his voice gives away how much he loves that they get on. 

Emily smirks at him but before she can retort her phone rings, which she answers quickly. “Prentiss.” She sighs to herself as the person on the other end fills her in on something. “Okay, call the team. I’ll head in now.” She hangs up and looks mournfully at both of the Hotchners.

“Case?” Aaron asks and when she nods in response he smiles and stands from the table with her. She looks like she is going to apologise, so he stops her. “I get it, Emily. It’s not a problem.” 

She smiles at him and hugs him before she thinks about it, their physical contact had largely been limited until that moment, and thanks him for understanding. She gives Jack a hug too before she leaves, and as she drives away from the Hotchner house she realises she already misses them.

The case is long, and brutal, and she takes a hit to the head from the butt of the unsubs gun. She had exchanged texts with Aaron throughout the case, not subjecting him to the details but letting him know enough to know it was a rough one. When she gets home she sees him stood at her front door, and realises she should have expected it. 

“Aaron.” She doesn’t call him that very often, even in their new friendship still calling him by his nickname, but she feels vulnerable and can’t bring herself to pretend she doesn’t need him. 

He looks up from his phone and takes in the sight of her, concern clouding his features as he takes in the sight of the bandage on her head. “Emily, what happened?”

Before anything else can be said her body moves, against her own volition, and she finds herself pressed up against his chest before she knows what’s happening. He tentatively wraps his arms around her as she starts to cry in earnest. 

“It’s ok, Em.” He drops a kiss to the top of her head and pulls her closer, “It’s ok.” They stand like that for a couple of minutes outside her front door before he pulls back slightly, “Lets get you inside.” 

Emily nods and digs out her keys from her purse before handing them to him and allowing him to shepherd her into her own home. He settles her down onto her couch and brings her a drink, moving around her kitchen like he lives there. He joins her on the couch and she settles into his side without thinking about it, their embargo on touching each other apparently destroyed by the brief hug in his dining room 8 days before.

She tells him everything about the case. The awful way that the victims died, the unsubs distain for women. How the takedown went wrong, but could have been much worse. It had been a long time since she genuinely felt that close to death. 

Aaron holds her and listens, and she realises how nice it is to have someone who understands completely. He doesn’t just understand the BAU - but her job. Being responsible for everyone and making tough calls. 

Emily considers that she likes it more than she should, but then he tilts her head up to kiss him and everything changes again. 

____________________________

They decide to take things slowly, both too hurt by the past and frankly too old to do anything rash. Emily likes kissing him, a lot, and she knows the feeling is mutual but the both seem unsure about taking the next step. A month after he kisses her for the first time they are making out like teenagers on his couch when his son walks in on them. 

“Oh God.” Jack exclaims loudly, and the pair of them shoot apart like they’ve been burned. “You guys need to get a room or something.” 

“Hey,” Aaron says affronted, and slightly embarrassed, “This is my house. Technically this whole place is my room.” 

“Shouldn’t this be happening the other way around?” Jack asks, seemingly over his embarrassment quite quickly and taking to making fun of the pair of them instead. 

Emily sits there red faced, avoiding eye contact with Jack and wishing the earth would swallow her up. “I’m really sorry, Jack.”

He smirks at her, the smirk he usually keeps for making fun of his father, and in a strange way it makes her happy. “I’m happy for you guys, really. Just try and keep it out of the communal areas of the house.” 

Both of the adults in the room close their eyes, trying to block out the moment, and go impossibly redder with embarrassment. Jack walks out of the room towards the kitchen, seemingly satisfied with himself, but not before shouting over his shoulder. “Just make sure you use protection.”

“Oh God.” Emily exclaims, hitting Aaron lightly on the arm. “You said he wouldn’t be home yet.”

“He wasn’t meant to be.”

“Next time we’re going to mine.” 

When they do take the next step two weeks later it’s everything they both always hoped it would be and more. They reassure each other over the scars they both bear, and love each other completely. They fit together so perfectly she wonders if they were made for each other. It sounds ridiculous in her head, so she doesn’t verbalise it. He does though, and she kisses him for it. 

____________________________

The team, both old and current, take the news of them being together well. Too many of them comment that it was about time they figured it out for Emily’s liking, and not for the first time since they started she wondered if they were the last to know they were perfect for each other.

Then Rossi, who is hosting the get together, tells her about the old office pool they had going before she went to London and she knows for sure that they were the last to know. 

JJ and Garcia corner her in Rossi’s kitchen, the later very affronted that she hadn’t called her specifically to fill her in on the news, and ask for the details. She's been avoiding their questions about her and Aaron's sex life semi-successfully, knowing how uncomfortable it would make him for her to talk about it, for about 20 minutes when he brings her over a glass of wine. He hands it to her and kisses her. 

"You ok, sweetheart?" He asks softly, in a tone their friends haven't heard him use for anyone other than Jack. Emily nods, but blushes when she sees the look of pure enjoyment on Garcia and JJ's faces, and Aaron is called back to the kitchen island by Rossi before she can think of an escape plan. He kisses her again and walks away. 

"Ok that might just be the most adorable thing I've ever seen." Garcia exclaims, and Emily just knows everyone heard her. 

____________________________

Three months into their relationship Aaron finally asks her about Mr Scratch. It was something unspoken between them, a subject neither of them had dared to bring up in any depth since he first called her half a year ago. 

They are lying in his bed together when he does it, her naked back pressed into his chest and she finds that she is grateful that she isn’t looking at him when she slowly explains it all. His fingers lightly traced over the scars left by Doyle as she speaks and he is once again blown away by how brave the women he is holding in his arms is.

“You could have died.” He says the emotion in his voice palpable and he makes his hold on her tighter.

“Yeah.” Her answer is simple because it’s the truth. 

“You would have died to protect my son.” He pulls her to lie on her back so she can meet his eyes, and she reluctantly lets him, unsure what she will see in them. 

“Yeah.” She repeats, “And you. I wasn’t going to let him hurt either of you.” 

He’s leaning over her, his fingers lightly tracing her cheekbone as they look at each other. She raises her hand to run her finger the crease in-between his eyebrows. He leans down and kisses her hard, teeth and tongues clashing slightly. He ends the kiss as quickly as he started it and rests his forehead against hers, her hands against the back of his head anchoring him there.

“I love you so much.” He says, as if he’s said it a thousand times before even though it’s the first. 

She inhales a stuttering breath before she smiles widely at him, “I love you, too. So much.”  
____________________________

Despite the instance of going slowly at the beginning their relationship picks up a lot of speed after that. They suddenly realise another two months down the line it’s been weeks since she has been at her place, and make the mutual decision that she should move in. 

Aaron asks Jack what he would think if Emily lived with them, and he gives him a look that only a teenager could give a parent before saying. “I thought she already did live here.” 

A month later, and only 6 months after she came home from a case to find him at her front door, she hands her keys over to the real estate agent when the last of her belongings are removed. It briefly occurs to her that this is a step she hadn't been willing to take for Andrew, giving up her place of solitude, when she had briefly considered moving to Denver.

They lay in bed one night and Aaron asks a question that had been bothering him for years. 

“Do you regret not having kids?”

She raises her eyebrows at him and shifts onto her side so she can look at him properly. Emily doesn’t know what to say at first, a million answers floating through her head. Eventually she settles on honesty. “Sometimes. I always wanted them, and I think I would have made a half decent mother.” 

“You would have been an excellent mother.” 

She smiles at him, the smile he knows is reserved only for him and his son, and she places her hand on his face, stroking his jawline with her fingertips. “It just wasn’t meant to be. Between work, never finding the right guy and circumstance. It didn’t happen. And then Doyle took away whatever remaining hope I had that it could happen for me.” 

He furrows his brow at that, he’d always wondered but never asked. “You mean-“

She nods with a sad smile on her face. “The damage was pretty bad. I was told I’d never be able to have children.” 

“I’m so sorry, sweetheart.” 

She smiled sadly. “Don’t be. I’ve learned to live with it.” And it was true, she had accepted it. Maybe in another life she could have been a mother, but she was happy with her life now. 

“You never said anything.” 

“It was never relevant.” 

He gives her the classic Hotch frown and it makes her laugh, her hand moves from his cheek to his forehead so she can smooth out the lines it creates there. “We should have figured this all out years ago. We could have had so much more time. Things could be so different.” 

She kisses him for that, for being the sweet man she loved. “They could have been. But I like what we have now.” 

He still looks unsure, as if he is mourning a life they never got to live. So she continues. 

“Aaron, I get to grow old with you, and that’s something that until relatively recently thought would never happen for either one of us. I have to believe everything we’ve been through, together and apart, has lead to this.” 

She knows it’s not that simple, her job is still dangerous and they have both been through enough to know that anything could happen. For now though, she’ll let herself hope.  
_____________________________

She is just back from a case, minutes after sending the rest of the team home, when she hears a knock on her open office door. Emily looks up from where she is sat at her desk to see her boyfriend stood there, a look on his face she can’t quite place. 

“Aaron, what are you doing here? I was just about to text to say I was on my way home.” 

He takes a step towards her and replies as if she hadn’t even spoken. “This is where we first met,” a wry smile comes to his face, “although we were on opposite sides of the desk back then.”

Emily smiles fondly, remembering it as if it was yesterday and not over a decade and a half ago. “You were so rude.” She says, a sparkle in her dark eyes that let him now she had forgiven him a long time ago. She gets up from her desk, file still in hand, and walks round to meet him on the other side of it. She presses a quick kiss to his lips. “You still haven’t said why you’re here.” 

“Do you know what today is?” 

She rolls her eyes at that. “Of course I do, Aaron. It’s our anniversary.” It had been one year since he’d kissed her at her old apartment. It felt like a lifetime and yet no time at all. “I’m glad I made it back in time.” She leant forward and kissed him again, confused when he didn’t return it. Emily frowns slightly and turns back to her desk to put the files she is holding down. 

She gasps when she turns back to him and sees he is now kneeling on the floor of her office with a ring box in his hand. She immediately feels her eyes start to well up. “You’re really doing this here?” 

“It seemed fitting. Jack said it was cheesy, which I took as his stamp of approval even if he didn’t mean it that way.” He’s nervous, and she thinks to herself she can probably count on one hand the number of times she has seen him nervous. 

“Jack knows?” 

“Of course. I think his exact words were ‘you should have done this years ago.’” 

Emily feels more tears well in her eyes and she knows she is so very close to them escaping down her cheeks. “You have to say it.” 

He smiles, and it’s a big bright thing that exposes both his dimples to her. “Emily Prentiss - will you marry me?” He opens the ring box to show her the most beautiful ring she has ever seen.

She starts crying then, knowing it is futile to try and hold it back. “Of course I will.” 

He try to stand up but groans, and they both seem to simultaneously remember his bad knee. “I’m too old to be on the floor like this.” He grumbles to himself, seemingly embarrassed.

Emily laughs through her tears before kneeling on the floor in front of him, pulling him in for a passionate kiss. They pull away long enough for him to slip the ring on her finger and then they kiss again. When they pull apart she wraps her arms around his neck and hugs him tightly. 

“I love you.” She whispers into his neck.

“I love you too.” 

Eventually she gets up and helps him up too, only making fun of him slightly for needing her help. They walk out into the bullpen and she is surprised to see the team there, as well as Jack and Garcia, holding bottles of Champagne and smiling widely at them. 

It’s only then that Emily realises Alvez and Rossi had been shooting her odd looks the entire flight home. 

____________________________

_“Life is made up of moments, small pieces of glittering mica in a long stretch of gray cement. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won’t happen. We have to teach ourselves how to make room for them, to love them, and to live, really live.” - Anna Quindlen_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact - that proposal scene is the first part of this I wrote. 
> 
> Let me know what you think!
> 
> Until next time,
> 
> Sequin Smile x


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, first of all I am blown away by the reaction to the first chapter of this. Thank you so, so much from the bottom of my heart for all of the reviews and kudos. 
> 
> Here is chapter 2!

Since Aaron’s work at the academy means he works significantly more sociable hours than her he ends up planning most of the wedding alongside her mother. Emily, who definitely finds it a lot funnier than he does, takes great pleasure in him repeatedly loosing his patience with her mother’s demands. He regales her with how Elizabeth had sent him email after email about flower choices and menu options. 

Emily tries not to smile at the look of indignation on his face as he explains how her mother had called him that day, whilst he was lecturing, and left him 3 separate voicemails. “I did tell you what she is like.”

He shoots a look at her across the dining room table as they ate. “I always thought you were exaggerating.” 

She narrows her eyes at him for that, but before she can retort Jack pipes in. “Isn’t she in her 80s? How scary can an old woman be?” 

“You’ll find out tomorrow when we go get our tuxes for the wedding.” 

“She’s going with you?” Emily asked, nose scrunched up at the thought.

“Apparently she wants to make sure I don’t make any choices that go against the theme.” 

Emily laughs again. It’s a wild, uninhibited laugh that he loves, and he can’t even be mad that it’s at his expense. She tries to smother her laugh behind her hand, and places her other hand over his on the table. “I’m so sorry, but this has genuinely made my day.” 

“Laugh it up, sweetheart. She’s going dress shopping with you on Saturday.” 

He doesn’t think he’s ever seen a smile fall off of her face so quickly.  
_____________________________________

Jack calls her one evening when he’s in trouble. She feels her fiancé next to her jolt into awareness as she says his sons name. He watches intently as she gets out of bed and pulls a sweater on over her pyjamas as she continues to talk to Jack. She hangs up and turns to look at him.

“What’s going on?” Aaron asks, panic in his voice.

“I’m not sure, but he’s asked me to go pick him up.” 

He moves to get out of bed himself, and she walks over to stop him and sits on his side of the bed. “I’m coming with you.”

“No,” She puts her hands on his shoulders, “You’re not.” 

“Emily.” His voice is firm, and she hears a level of annoyance in it she hasn’t heard aimed at her since he used to solely call her Prentiss. 

“He called me, Aaron. I’ll go pick him up and bring him home.” The last thing Jack needed was both of them showing up, especially since she knows how Aaron will likely react if there is any sign of harm to his son. 

He doesn’t like it, the clenching of his jaw and his furrowed brow gives that away, but he nods. She presses a kiss to his lips and promises to text him when she is with Jack as she leaves. 

Jack is stood on the sidewalk outside the address he sent her, and almost bolts for the passenger door when he sees her familiar car drive up. She can smell the alcohol on him the second he sits next to her. She locks the doors, but doesn’t think about driving off yet.

“Are you ok?” 

He clicks his seatbelt into place and doesn’t look at her. “Can we just go please?” His tone is sharp, something that is out of character for him.

“Jack,” She lays a hand on his arm, “I just need to know you’re ok. This isn’t you - you don’t call in the middle of the night or lie about where you are.” 

He shrunk into his seat at that a little, hoping Emily would somehow have missed the fact this wasn’t his friends house where he was supposed to be. “I’m fine, Emily. Can we just go?” 

She sighs, shoots a text to Aaron to let him know she has Jack with her and that he had been drinking, and starts to drive. It takes him ten minutes before he starts explaining what happened. It was a party of one of the guys at school, and he knew Aaron would say no, which is why he lied about where he was. There were no parents, and a lot of alcohol, and Emily winced as she remembered those days herself. 

Jack admitted to drinking, which even if he hadn’t the fumes coming off of him the slight slur to his words would give him away, but explains that as soon as someone started passing drugs around he wanted out. 

They sit in silence for a lot of the drive, but as they pull into their street she speaks again. “Your dad is awake and knows I came to get you, he’s going to want to talk about it.” 

Jack groans as she stops the car outside the house. “He’s going to be pissed.”

“Yes. He is.” Emily replies, not wanting to sugar coat it. 

They enter the house to find Aaron pacing in the foyer, and pissed seems to be an understatement based on the look on his face. Emily realises she had miscalculated in thinking some time alone would help calm him down, especially once he knew Jack was safe. 

“Jack,” She turns to the boy stood next to her, “Why don’t you go to your room? I’ll talk to your dad.” 

“Emily.” Aaron’s tone is the same as before she left, worse even, and she knows this is going to escalate. It’s a conversation the father and son need to have, but not whilst the 17 year old is drunk. Jack looks between the two of them unsure, but eventually moves past his father and up the stairs. His door slams a little louder than it usually would, Emily assumes from his coordination being a little off, and they are left alone. 

“Aaron,-”

He interrupts her, his frustration and concern at the situation coming out at her. “You are not his mother.”

She tightens her jaw and blows out a breath through her nose. “I know that. And I have never tried to be.” 

“You have no right-”

She interrupts him this time, “Aaron. He is home, and he is safe. He made a stupid choice this evening and you can yell at him about it tomorrow. But right now it is just not a good idea.” 

“You’re not a parent Emily so you just don’t understand.” 

She can tell he regrets it as soon as he says it, and she knows he doesn’t mean it. But that doesn’t mean it hurt any less. The problem with loving someone so much, and trusting them so deeply, is that you give them the power to know exactly how to hurt you. 

“Ok,” She breathes out, “It is 1.30 in the morning, neither of us are in the place to have this conversation. I’m going to bed. In the spare room.” She turns from him and walks up the stairs, ignoring him as he calls after her.

Breakfast just a few hours later is an awkward affair. Aaron immediately apologies to her, which she accepts easily, and Jack apologises to the both of them. Once he goes back to bed, to sleep off the headache he woke up with, the awkwardness returns slightly. 

They stand next to each other as she loads the dishwasher with the plates he hands her, but neither of them speak.

“Emily?” Once she looks at him he smiles, grabbing her hand instead of handing her another dish. “I am really glad that my son trusts you enough to call you when he’s in trouble.” 

She smiles back and squeezes his hand.  
_____________________________________

Their wedding, which is 8 months after he proposes, is of course at Rossi’s. Her mother gives her away and Jack is Aaron’s best man. It’s a small wedding, with BAU members past and present, their remaining family and a few other friends. Emily knows it is not the wedding her mother would have once envisioned for her when she was a little girl, but she can’t help the tears that gather in her eyes when Elizabeth tells her she looks beautiful as they get ready that morning. 

When they are having their first dance as man and wife, a thought occurs to Emily. “The last time we danced here together was JJ’s wedding.” 

She feels him smile against the top of her head. “The day before you told me you were going to London.” 

“It feels like a lifetime ago.” 

“It was really when you think about it.” He pulls back slightly to look at her, and the pair of them are completely oblivious to everyone around them. “I’m glad we made it here though.”

She smiles brightly at him and leans forward to kiss him. “Me too.” She leans back into him, resting her head against his shoulder. “I love you.”

“Love you too, Mrs Hotchner.” 

“You two are disgusting.” Jack’s teasing voice brings them out of their revere, and he is smirking at them from where he is stood next to them. That seems to be the moment they both realise other couples are now dancing around them too. “Can I cut in?” 

He holds out a hand to Emily and she smiles, kissing her new husband quickly, largely just for her Jack’s benefit, before taking the teenagers hand for a dance. 

Aaron walks over to the bar and stands next to Rossi, smiling as he watches Emily and Jack laugh as they dance together.

“You’re a lucky son of a bitch, you know that right?” Rossi comments, nothing but happiness for him on his face.

“I know.”  
_____________________________________

Jack is valedictorian at his high school graduation. She sits next to her husband during the ceremony and holds his hand tightly, both of them so proud of him that they could burst. 

When he takes to the podium to do his speech she feels Aaron grip her hand tighter, and she places a hand on his arm, pulling herself closer. Jack had been very tight lipped about his speech, apparently wanting to surprise them, and hadn’t even practised with them in the house in case they overheard.

“Today I’ve been asked to talk about bravery.” He begins, looking out over the crowd of teenagers and parents. “Which seems weird, given that I haven’t really done anything with my life yet. I guess that’s the point - we all have to be brave in this next step into the unknown.” Jack looks briefly to them, clearly having spotted them in the crowd earlier, and he smiles. 

“I thought I’d talk about some brave people in my life, and what I’ve learnt from them. My mother died when I was very young. I don’t remember a lot about her, I can’t remember the sound of her voice. But I do remember the feeling of her love. She loved fiercely, and that was what made her brave.”

Emily sucks in a breath and feels it stutter in her chest. Haley had been gone for so long now. Jack rarely spoke about her, and she wondered if it was for her benefit. She made a mental note to make sure that wasn’t the case. 

“My dad is, and always has been, my hero. And I know a lot of people say that, but he is a real life hero. He worked for the FBI for many years, risking his life to save others day in day out. Then he gave up that job, that he loved, to protect me. He taught me that bravery isn’t just walking into the fight, but sometimes walking away from it.” 

Emily turns her head to look at her husband and sees tears tracking down his cheeks. She moves her hand from his arm to wipe one away and he squeezes the hand sandwiched between his. 

“My step mother, Emily, is one of the bravest people I have ever met. She is selfless and kind, and incredibly badass in a lot of ways I cannot legally go into.”

She chokes out a laugh at that, as do several people around her, and her barely there control on her emotions start to slip. 

“Whilst she has only technically officially been my step mother for a little over 2 months she has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, and I know she would literally give her life for mine. Her bravery is in her silence, and the way she is simply just there for everyone she loves without question or hesitance.” 

Both Emily and Aaron are openly crying , and neither of them try to cover it. She hopes that Haley, wherever she is, is watching and sees that her son was raised as she had hoped. Surrounded by love. 

After the commencement they find him in the crowd and Emily pulls him into a hug tight enough it makes him grunt. Before Jack can even think about being embarrassed his dad pulls them both into a hug. Jack resigns himself to it, but knows deep down that he needs this as much as they do. 

“I take it you guys liked my speech?” 

“Emily cried. A lot.” Aaron says as he pulls away from the hug, “I held it together though.” Although the teasing glint in his eye tells his son otherwise as they all separate to stand next to each other.

Emily lets out an outraged sound, “That is a total lie.” She exclaims, hitting him jokingly in the chest with the graduation programme in her hand. “He was worse than me.” 

_____________________________________

Her mother dies suddenly 10 months after their wedding. A stroke taking the ambassador without warning, and despite her mother’s old age it takes Emily by surprise. 

“I know it sounds stupid, but I thought she’d live forever.” She murmurs into his shoulder on their couch when they get home from the hospital. Elizabeth had been taken there, but nothing could be done. By the time Emily and Aaron arrive the doctors explain the machines are the only thing keeping her alive. 

Emily knows it sounds infantile as it comes out of her mouth, she knows better than anyone about the fragility of life, but she had genuinely never considered a world without her mother in it. 

He pulls her tighter into their embrace. She hadn’t cried yet, and he knows that could be the shock, but her relationship with her mother had always been more than complicated. Their already tenuous relationship was fractured further by her faked death and initial reluctance to reach out when she came back.

“Sweetheart, that doesn’t sound stupid at all.” He feels her press her face into the crook of his neck and take in a breath, seeking comfort in him. “What can I do? Do you need anything?”

She sighs slightly, pulling away so she can look into his eyes. She looks sad, confused. But there are still no tears. “Just this.” She answers simply. “You’re what I need.” 

The following day Emily is in the living room by herself, looking at funeral arrangements online. She hears someone approach her, and assumes it is her husband. He was hovering, waiting for her to fall apart and she knew it. 

“I’m fine, Aaron. I promise.” She hears the tension in her own voice, and doesn’t even believe herself. 

“Emily.” Jack’s voice startles her, and she turns so quickly to see him stood behind her she is surprised she hasn’t given herself whiplash. 

“Jack.” She gets up and hugs him, “What are you doing here? Don’t you have classes?” He was a freshman at Yale, him picking her Alma Mater over his fathers was something that still brought her amusement to this day. 

“Dad called.” He answers as he hugs her back. “I’m so sorry about Elizabeth, Emily.” 

“Oh, Jack.” She squeezes him again before pulling away so they can both sit down. “You didn’t have to come all the way here. You didn’t even really know her, it’s not like she was family to you.”

“No, but you are.” He looks so much like his father in that moment it hurts her heart and she wonders where the time has gone. She remembers when he was a sweet little boy that ran amok around the bullpen when Jessica couldn’t look after him. Emily used to sneak him candy when Aaron wasn’t watching, and she absently wonders if Jack ever told him. 

“I know what it’s like when your mom dies, so if you want to talk I’m here.” 

“Oh honey,” she grabs his hand, “You’re so sweet but we can’t compare the two. You were so young and-,” she pauses, realising she almost says ‘your mom loved you’, but she won’t do her mother that disservice. “-and you didn’t get enough time with your mom. I’m in my fifties and my relationship with my mother was complicated.” 

Complicated doesn’t feel like a strong enough word, it never has done, but it will do. Growing up she never felt like she had a family. It had always just been her, her mother and her mothers job. Her father almost a mythical creature since he left when she was young. He had attempted to make contact with her when she was at college, but she had turned him down, saying he had made his choice when his marriage broke down and he left his daughter behind. 

“She was still your mom. Things being complicated won’t change that. You’re allowed to be sad that she’s gone, and angry that she never gave you the relationship you wanted.” 

She’s not sure why, but that is what breaks her. She feels tears reaching her eyes faster than she can handle them. “When did you get so smart?” She chokes out and then the dam breaks.

Jack pulls her into a hug. “Spending my whole life around behavioural analysts clearly had an impact.”

It’s an awkward hug. She loves Jack, and she knows he loves her too, but he is a 19 year old young man doing his best to comfort his grieving step-mother. It doesn’t take long for Jack to extract himself from her hug and he’s immediately replaced by her husband. She grips him tightly, as if he’s the only thing keeping her grounded. 

“Aaron.” She chokes out his name, and his response is his hand cupping the back of her head, shushing her as he strokes her hair in an attempt to comfort her. “She was my mom.” It’s a pointless thing to say, and she knows it, but it’s all she can think about. Her mother is dead. 

“I know sweetheart.” He catches Jacks eyes over the top of Emilys head, and it is not lost on either of the Hotchner men that this is the only time they have ever heard her refer to Elizabeth as anything other than ‘mother.’ 

“I’ll make some tea.” Jack offers, pointing towards the kitchen as he backs out of the room, wanting to help practically but also wants to give them some space. 

_____________________________________

Elizabeth’s funeral is two weeks later, and Jack is still in town. Emily attempts to get him to go back to Yale more than once since in that time, but he insists that he is staying until after the funeral. She was concerned about him missing so much school, but he had implied to all of his professors that he had lost his grandmother, much to Emily’s chagrin, so they were being lenient. 

When it comes to the day of the funeral she is grateful he’s there. She stands in-between him and Aaron, the later with his arm permanently wrapped around her shoulder, as her mother’s coffin is lowered into the ground. 

The wake is the most exhausting part for Emily, dignitaries and politicians telling her how incredible her mother was, all with slightly different versions of her in their memories. Elizabeth Prentiss was an incredible politician, and always had been, and it left Emily wondering if anyone had ever known the real her. 

Elizabeth had certainly never known the real Emily. She stands in the home that had been their base when they were in the US during her childhood and realises it is hers now. Her mother had left her everything since there was no one else to leave it to.

Eventually the majority of people filter out and its her and her Hotchner men as well as the members of the BAU team who had been able to make it to support her and a few stragglers. She stands in her mothers study and is staring at a photo of the two of them together from her high school graduation when she hears someone enter the room.

“I’ve got to say,” She lets out cooly as she turns to face her father, “You have some nerve coming here today.” 

She first saw him at the churchyard, lingering at the back of the crowd in a place he clearly thought was out of sight. 

“I came to pay my respects.” 

Emily let out a small laugh at that, “Well you’ve done that. So you can leave.” She walks past him, moving out of the way when he makes an attempt to touch her.

“He looks a lot like your husband.” 

She turns to look at him again, confusion on her face. “Who does?” 

“Your son.” 

Emily doesn’t correct him. She doesn’t say Jack isn’t her son and that she’s only been married for less than a year. Her father would have access to that information through his old work contacts if he wanted to know anything about her. He didn’t know her and didn’t want to. 

She closes her eyes briefly before speaking, knowing this is likely the last time she will ever see him. “Goodbye, Senator Prentiss.” 

She leaves him there and goes in search of her husband. She finds him stood with Garcia and Tara as the three of them start to clear away the remaining food. He makes eye contact with her, silently asking if she is ok. 

She’s not, and he knows it, but he knows her well enough to leave it until they get home.  
_____________________________________

Emily gets injured on a case, and whilst it’s not the worst one she has ever had by quite some way, Aaron has been acting strangely since she came home. The bandage on her arm distracting him every time he looks at her.

“I am fine,” She placates him, “I promise.” They sit together on the porch swing they have at the back of the house, huddled under a blanket enjoying the cooling autumn air.

“I know you are.” His lips are in a grim line on his face. “I just hate that I’m not there to protect you.”

She knows he doesn’t mean she can’t protect herself. They both know she’s more than capable. It comes from a place of guilt over not being able to stop Doyle hurting her all those years ago, and a million other scenarios where she has been hurt on the job and he couldn’t prevent it. 

She wonders if she should tell him what she has been putting off since she left for this case, the conversation she’d had with her boss before they were called away. It will change things, and she thinks it will be for the better, but she wants them to make this decision rationally. The look on his face makes up her mind for her.

“They’ve offered me Section Chief.” 

He looks at her, shock colouring his face. “When?”

“Just before I left for Florida. I wanted to talk to you about it in person.

“Em.” His voice trails off, unsure what to say. He doesn’t think he has the words to get across how proud of her he is, and judging by the look on her face she doesn’t even seem sure if she wants it. “What did you tell them?”

“That I had to talk to you.” She looks at the bandage on her arm and runs a thumb over the white material. “I think I should take it.”

“You’d be great at it.” 

“I’d be here a lot more with you. The working hours are more reasonable, and I wouldn’t be in the field.”

The pay would also be better, but she doesn’t say that. Since her mothers death money has been no where near an issue for them. She still remembers how he had to sit down when he saw the amount of money in their bank account once her mothers estate had been liquidated. 

“Are you trying to convince me or you?” He hooks a finger under her chin and makes her look at him.

“Both of us, I think.” 

“Sweetheart, you can’t make this decision just because you got hurt.”

“I know. I already knew it was the right choice before a sociopath came at me with a knife, Aaron. It’s just a big change. It’s…” and she trails off, unsure what to say.

“It’s the BAU.” He finishes for her and she nods. “They’ll understand.” 

They do understand, although none of them like change. Reid is the most unsure of her promotion. She goes on one more case as the Unit Chief, and when the jet lands back at Quantico Aaron is stood on the tarmac waiting for her. 

He smiles at her as she approaches him, and any lingering reservations she has about her new job float away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll level with you, I do have more of this in me. I have a few scenes written from a few years down the line. 
> 
> If there is interest there can be a part 3 to this.
> 
> Until next time,
> 
> SequinSmile x


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise in advance...

When Jack lets them know he is bringing a girl home, Katie, for the first time Aaron loses his mind. Emily watches in real time as her husband suddenly seems to realise his only son is grown up, despite the fact he is now 21, and she finds it incredibly endearing. 

“He seems to really like her, Aaron.” She placates one evening, the day before Jack is due to arrive home for spring break. They are sat on their couch, her leant up against his side with her legs swung over his lap.

“He told you about her?” He runs one hand up and down her thigh, whilst lifting his glass of wine with the other to take a sip.

She smiles at him indulgently before answering. “He told me about her and then asked for advice on how to ask you if she could come here.” 

“Hmm.” He makes a noise in his throat. He is happy for his son, and from the conversation he had with him about this girl, Jack seems besotted. “None of his high school girlfriends ever even came around.”

Emily smiled indulgently at him. “That’s because you’re really scary, honey.” She runs her fingers through the soft hair at the nape of his neck. “I dread to think what you would have been like with a daughter.” 

Aaron frowns slightly, and the weight of those words rest on his chest as he, not for the first time, imagines what a little girl part him and part Emily would have looked like. He doesn’t dwell on it. He’s learnt that’s not a good thing to do in the almost 7 years since he first kissed her outside her old apartment. He loves their life, and on the odd time he has mentioned it over the years she can’t hide the slight sadness in her eyes from him. 

“Am I really that scary?” He grumbles, and fails to hide his smile when she laughs in return.

“Not to me, honey.” She leans forward and presses a kiss to his lips. “But not everyone knows how much of a big softie you are.” 

He pulls back slightly, furrowing his eyebrows at her. “I don’t think I like that much better.” 

She laughs again. That big beautiful laugh he missed in all their years apart. “Well, it’s our little secret.”

______________________________

“Emily?” Jack asks from behind her, she turns to see her stepson stood on the other side of the kitchen island. 

“Hey Jack,” She can sense he seems a little on edge, the profiler in her always present even though it's been years since she was in the BAU. “Wedding planning getting to you?” 

On some level she can’t believe that Jack and Katie are getting married, it doesn’t feel like it’s been much time at all since he first brought her round to meet them. They are still so young, only 25, but very much in love with their whole lives ahead of them. Sometimes she wishes she had met Aaron when she was that age, that they had been able to navigate their entire lives with each other, but then this amazing young man in front of her wouldn’t exist. And she couldn’t imagine her life without him.

“Kind of,” Jack answers, taking a sip of the beer in his hand before placing the bottle on the counter in front of him. “I had no idea that napkins came in so many colours.” 

Emily laughs. “Just be grateful that Katie’s mom isn’t as bad as my mother was. I think she almost put your dad in an early grave when they were planning our wedding.” 

Jack smiles, but quickly looks lost in thought. “Do you miss her?”

“My mother?” She asks, and when he nods in response she considers her answer before speaking again. “We never had a conventional relationship, and she was critical of just about everything I ever did in my life, but yeah I miss her.” 

Emily knows there is something else on his mind, but Jack is too much like his father for his own good sometimes. He’s insular, and has to think things through before he can say them to anyone. It’s one of the first things her and Katie bonded over - the perils of loving a Hotchner man. She waits him out, standing on her side of the kitchen island until he speaks again.

“Katie and her mom were talking about the father-daughter dance,” He waves his hand in the air in the direction of the dining room, which was currently wedding central where Katie and her mom and sister were going over the finer details. “And, you don’t have to do it, but I wondered if you’d do the mother-son dance with me at the wedding.” 

Emily could probably count on one hand the number of times in her life she has been left genuinely speechless, and this was certainly one of them. Jack seems to take her silence as a negative reaction.

“Like I said, you don’t have to. I know you’re not my mom, and you’ve never tried to be, but you’re the first person I think of apart from dad when I’m in trouble or upset-”

She cuts him off before he can spiral any further. “Jack,” She can feel tears gathering in her eyes, “Are you sure?” 

He nods at her, tears in his own eyes, “I never say anything I’m not sure about.” 

She laughs at that through her tears, again thinking about just how much like his father Jack is. “Of course I will.” 

Jack moves from where he is stood and pulls her into a hug. He’s taller than her, he has been since the Hotchner’s reentered her life, and she can’t help but think about when he was a little boy. 

“Thank you for everything, Emily. For the candy you used to sneak me as a kid, for always being here. For loving Dad.” 

She hugs him a bit tighter. “I love you, Jack.”

“Love you too.” They pull away from the hug and step away from each other. “I better get back in there, and this way Dad can stop hiding on the other side of that wall.” He jokes, pointing at the half wall between the kitchen and the living room.

Aaron at least has the decency to look slightly embarrassed when he steps around into view, which both his wife and his son laugh at, and he taps Jack on the shoulder as he walks past him. Once they are alone he wraps his wife in a hug and kisses the top of her head.

“Did you know he was going to ask me that?” She asks as she looks up at him.

He nods in response, “Yeah he spoke to me about it a couple days ago. Asked if I thought you’d be ok with it.” 

“You could have warned me.” She presses her face back into his chest and sighs as she feels his fingers trail up and down her back in a familiar pattern. 

“He made me promise I wouldn’t.” They stand like that in silence for a couple moments before he speaks again. “Em?”

“Hmmm.” Is her only response, feeling completely sated in this moment in their kitchen, a far cry from the chaos of the wedding planning they had been involved in all evening.

“When did you used to sneak my son candy?”

______________________________

“I think I’m going to let my hair go grey.” She says it as a statement, but it almost sounds like a question. He looks up at her over his book, and looks at her through his glasses.

“Well you do always complain about how much it costs you to get it dyed.” He says, having learnt a long time ago that it’s safer to state facts about anything alone these lines.

She sighs at him and makes the short walk from their ensuite to their bed, where she sits on his side next to him. “It is becoming a lot of upkeep.” She is obviously worried about something, but he can tell from her hesitation she is reluctant to tell him. 

He snaps his book shut, knowing he won’t be getting anymore reading done that evening. “Em, what’s on your mind?” 

She meets his eyes for the first time. “Will you still find me attractive if I have grey hair?” 

If it wasn’t for the fact she looked desolate at the thought of him finding her unattractive he would have laughed at the absurdity of the idea. “Sweetheart,” He catches her chin in his hand and maintains eye contact with her. “There is nothing on this planet that would make you unattractive to me.” 

She smiles shyly, “Really?”

“Really.”

Her confidence seems to return as quickly as it disappeared and she leans closer to him. “Why don’t you show me how attractive you find me?”

He grins at her before pulling her to him. “Anytime Mrs Hotchner.” 

______________________________

She retires around the same time that Katie gives birth to their first grandchild. She never made it to director of the FBI, but deputy director for the last few years of her career had been good enough for her. 

Emily and Aaron both adore their grandson, and she has to hold back tears when Jack refers to her as grandma when he places the small baby in her arms for the first time. 

When their granddaughter is born a four years later, and they tell her the baby girls middle name is Emily, she does cry. 

______________________________

The end, much like the beginning, starts with a phone call. This time it is her who makes the call, and as she hits Jack’s name in her contacts she knows this will be one of the worst conversations she has ever had.

It’s a diagnosis they all knew was coming. All the signs were there, but Emily had dangerously allowed herself to hope they were wrong. Hope had served her well in the years they had together, but it had finally let her down. 

Aaron asked her to call Jack, unable to explain to his son that he would soon lose another parent, and Emily can’t find it in her to tell her dying husband no. 

They lie in bed that night, in a position they often laid in over the years curled up together, and she asks a question that she realises she never asked. 

“Why did you call me?” Her voice is broken, ragged from the crying she had done that day, and for the first time in her life she doesn’t try and cover it. 

Without looking at him she can picture the frown on his face, the way his forehead crinkles in between his eyes and she looks up at him disentangling herself from him slightly. She traces her finger over his forehead, trying to commit everything about him to her memory even though it’s already seared there. 

“What do you mean, sweetheart?” 

“When you came back, what made you call?”

Realisation dawns on his face, and he smiles despite the day they’ve had. “You won’t believe me.” 

“Try me.” 

“I saw you that day, you must have been out on your lunch and I just so happened to drive past you.” He tucks some of her hair behind her ear and rests his hand on her cheek. “And I wondered to myself how it was possible you were even more beautiful than you were the last time I saw you. I realised how much I missed you. So I called.” 

She waits for a moment before a sound that is half a laugh, half a sob comes out of her. “You are so full of shit, Aaron Hotchner.” Her chin wobbles as she suppresses an actual sob. “I’m going to miss you so much.” 

“Oh sweetheart,” He pulls her back into his embrace and feels his own tears spring forward. “I’m going to miss you too.”

______________________________

Emily holds his hand as he goes only three months later. They got 20 years together, 20 years of love and laughter and each other and it still doesn’t feel like enough. She doesn’t even try to hold it together when his son and his family make it only 5 minutes too late. 

After everything she has seen and experienced, she doesn’t know what she believes happens after someone dies. She hopes if there is something, anything, he will wait there for her. The idea of an eternity without him too much to bear.   
______________________________

She lives another two years. In that time she loves on their grandchildren enough for the both of them and tells them watered down stories from their heyday. Stories of Hotch and Prentiss against the bad guys, where the bad guys never win and the good guys never get hurt. 

One evening, after she helps Katie put the kids to bed, Jack tells her that the pair of them are the kids heroes, much like his dad was once his to him. She smiles and tells him she loves him. They offer her the spare room for the night, since they know she still finds the empty house a challenge but she refuses. 

Emily Hotchner dies in her sleep that evening, and Jack would later wonder if she somehow knew what was coming.  
______________________________

She had once told her team that when she died after Doyle she had seen nothing. 

This time it’s different. 

It’s bright, wherever she is, and it takes her a moment to adjust her eyesight. As her eyes come into focus she sees him. 

She smiles.   
______________________________

_“You know that place between sleep and awake, that place where you still remember dreaming? That’s where I’ll always love you. That’s where I’ll be waiting.” - James V. Hart_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it for this story!
> 
> I've got to say, I am really really blown away by all the love on this story. It means so much to me. 
> 
> I may revisit this universe at some point, and do some more in depth one shots of moments not here. But for now, I'll leave it as is.
> 
> Let me know what you think!
> 
> Until next time,
> 
> SequinSmile x


End file.
